Letter No. 32: Immigration reform now!

You must be wondering why all Republicans are not getting the message as clearly as fellow GOP member Sen. Lindsay Graham when it comes to immigration reform?

Give the South Carolina senator an A+ for his accurate summation Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” when he said in no uncertain terms that the immigration bill being debated in the Senate and up for a vote this July would decide who wins the White House in 2016.

“If we don’t pass immigration reform, if we don’t get it off the table in a reasonable practical way, it doesn’t matter who you [Republicans] run in 2016. The only way we can get back in the good graces of the Hispanic community, in my view, is to pass comprehensive immigration reform,” stated Graham.

Thank you, Sen. Graham, for putting it so succinctly! Now maybe you can do a crash course in logic and reason for the minions in the tea party now that Michelle Bachman is out of the way. Put it in simple English—the same language immigrants must learn fully before they have a chance of benefiting from any reform. Tell them it’s immigration reform or they can watch their hopes of ever getting the White House back go to hell in a hand basket.

Not even Marco Rubio will be able to save the GOP or tea party on this one. It’s why even the once-harsh critic of immigration reform is now on board with the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 (S.744), regardless of how much it pains him and despite the wriggling he’s doing to try to keep his supporters on the right in check.

I think we all can agree that no one wants a porous border or another wave of undocumented immigrants. But the reality is that illegal border crossings are down and more criminal immigrants have been deported from this country under the Obama administration than any other in the history of the United States.

So what exactly is all this talk from Johnny Cornyn and company about protecting the borders before we get any form of legalization? Just another way of saying they don’t support immigration reform. Thankfully, the Senate at least seems to have a lot of rational minded lawmakers who can shut the pie holes of people like Cornyn and tell them where to go jump off.

And so the beat goes on as all eyes and a million-dollar ad campaign from the SIEU focus on ensuring the passage of a measure that would provide a 13-year path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants. It would also give the GOP and tea party folks enough juice to tap not just the high skilled immigrant voters Silicon Valley is lobbying for, but the big pockets of these corporate tycoons whose dollars they need to keep their campaign coffers full and running over.

Remind them of this please, Mr. President!

Respectfully,

Felicia Persaud

The writer is founder of NewsAmericasNow, CaribPR Wire and Hard Beat Communications.